The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Published: August 23, 2022 by Berkle
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Genre: Fantasy

Blurb: As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for.

My Opinion: Some books land in your lap like they’ve been waiting for you to slow down long enough to notice them. This novel, which has been on my shelf for a while, was one of those for me. I was completely pulled in from the first pages, with the kind of immediate connection where you blink and realize you’ve already read three chapters.

This was my first time reading Sangu Mandanna, and now I’m already eyeing the companion novel because clearly, I’ve been missing out. This book became my entire weekend, even though I had a long list of fall outdoor prep waiting for me. Instead, I kept thinking: surely Mika’s magic could handle the weeds, maybe charm the rake into doing a few areas while I stayed curled up with the narrative. Alas, no such luck since the pages, with their well-timed humor, were worth the undone chores.

Yes, the grumpy sunshine romance is visible early on, but it’s never the whole point. As the story unfolds, each character, consisting of three young witches, their caretakers, and Mika herself, becomes someone you genuinely care about. As you read, you feel you’ve been invited into a home full of oddities, warmth, and secrets, and you have mentally moved in before you have been invited to stay.

This is a book about found family, found romance, found heartbreak, and found futures. It’s cozy without being too much, magical without losing its grounding, and heartfelt in a way that sneaks up on you. A perfect “right book, right time” read and one I’m glad found me.

Demon Copperhead

Title: Demon Copperhead
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Published: October 18, 2022 by Harper
Format: Hardcover, 560 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

My Opinion: I’ll be honest: This award-winning novel hooked me right from the start. Those early chapters had that crackling energy where you think this is going to be something special. And it is… at least at first. But somewhere around the middle, the momentum sagged. I kept reading, hoping it would snap back into place, but the story just stayed stuck in that same loop of redundant disappointment and sadness.

I switched to the audiobook since that helps when I get bogged down, and I did enjoy it a bit more. But eventually even that drifted into background noise, which is never a great sign. How many words do you need to read about a child in the foster care system, who keeps getting knocked down, again and again, till all that is left is lost dreams and death, while trying to grab on to any tiny glimmers of hope? And while that’s an important story, I didn’t need 540 pages of the same heartbreak to understand the point.

That said, I absolutely see why it won the Pulitzer Prize. At its heart, it is a coming‑of‑age documentary wrapped in fiction. An unflinching look at rural Southern life in the 1980s, where being born into a bad situation often means you’re stuck there, and where drugs marketed as “help” ended up devastating entire communities.

And here’s the thing: by the end, she pulled me back in. The final stretch has real emotional weight of sadness, yes, but also humor, resilience, hope, and the kind of community that keeps people afloat even when everything else is falling apart. It’s a tough book, a long book, and sometimes a frustrating book, but it’s also undeniably powerful.

If you want a raw, wide-ranging story that faces tough topics head-on, this book deserves its reputation, even if it can be a test of patience.

The Shadow Friends

Title: The Shadow Friends
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Published: August 25, 2026 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle, 293 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Series: The Martini Club #3

Blurb: When a renowned disease expert and Russian defector dies mysteriously during a global affairs conference in Purity, Maine, the tight-knit band of former spies in the Martini Club once again sees their quiet coastal retirement interrupted by international intrigue. And when a waitress at the conference hotel is found murdered, Ingrid Slocum sees chilling links to a disastrous mission that nearly killed her three decades ago.

Desperate to uncover the truth, Ingrid’s drawn back into the game by a magnetic ex-CIA colleague—and former lover—who was with her on the long-ago doomed mission. He convinces her to join him, and together they head to Amsterdam to track down her would-be killer.

Ingrid’s frantic husband Lloyd and Maggie Bird are close behind, but a clandestine network of assassins is intent on stopping them. Forced to question every allegiance, the Martini Club must rely on the skills they tried to leave behind. Because in this game of revenge and deception, the past never dies—it just hides in the shadows.

My Opinion: You know how some series become your version of comfort food? The Martini Club is one of those for me, an “oh good, a new one dropped” moments where you settle in, already knowing you’ll enjoy the ride. Part of the charm is the cast: older characters who’ve lived full, complicated lives, the kind where past choices don’t stay politely in the past but occasionally nip at their heels. I love that. Give me retirees with baggage over fresh faced agents any day.

This installment continues the series’ signature blend of spy tinged mischief and small town feels. It’s easy to read, easy to keep everyone straight, and absolutely does not require deep thinking; just a willingness to believe that a quiet Maine town has somehow become the unofficial retirement home for former CIA, intelligence analysts, and assorted shadow world professionals.

Now, I’ll admit: the conveniences are… noticeable. The “just the right person at just the right moment” thing pops up more than once, and not just in this book but across the series. Yet, that’s fiction, isn’t it? Authors get to tap the puzzle pieces into place, and we get to enjoy the finished picture without worrying too much about how we got there.

What keeps it fun is the vibe: a group of friends who want to garden, raise chickens, sip their weekly martinis, read a good book, and enjoy retirement. Yet somehow keep stumbling into danger, secrets, and excitement that no quiet town should reasonably produce. It’s escapist, a little silly, and thoroughly entertaining.

If you’re in the mood for a breezy spy flavored mystery with older protagonists and zero homework required, this series continues to deliver exactly that.

And Then There Were Bun

Title: And Then There Were Bun
Author: Vivien Chien
Published: August 25, 2026 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, 320 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Series: Noodle Shop Mystery #13

Blurb: With the help of Lana’s parents and close friends, Megan packs the family restaurant with a guest list that includes friends—both old and new—to help celebrate her best gal’s birthday. But when one of their guests brings an unsavory plus one that Lana just happened to date back in her college days, tensions build between her old beau and her current boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau.

After a heated exchange of words between the two men, the evening returns to the smooth and enjoyable party that Megan had originally hoped for. But relief is short lived when Lana’s ex is found in the dumpster outside of Asia Village.

As if the circumstances and tragedy taking place on Lana’s birthday aren’t enough, the gang gets an even bigger surprise when Adam is the main suspect under scrutiny. Not only are there several witnesses confirming the verbal confrontation between the two men earlier in the evening, but it’s also reported that Adam disappeared from the party for a considerable amount of time. And unfortunately for him, not even Lana can back up his whereabouts. With Adam in the hot seat, his own partner, Matthew Higgins, must investigate the crime alongside their boss—the Chief of Police, Tom Riceton, who wants speedy results to keep away the threat of Internal Affairs knocking on their door.

As Adam struggles with the dynamic shifts in his personal life, being on suspension and shut out from his resources at the police department, he must rely solely on his skills as a detective and the ingenuity of Lana’s amateur sleuthing capabilities to solve the case and clear his name definitively.

My Opinion: There’s just something about this series that keeps pulling me back in. At this point, I’ve been with Vivien Chien since book one, so yes, I fully admit I give her a little grace when a story wobbles. But this time? No wobble. This novel hit every single point I look for in a Noodle Shop mystery.

The characters felt like they were hitting their stride again. The snarky humor was back, a bit of history bubbled up, the agents of chaos, also known as the Mahjong Matrons, arrived right on cue, and all of Lana’s friends and family showed up for her, not just for her birthday, but before she had to send out a bat signal. That’s one of my favorite things about this series: Lana never really goes it alone; her circle is there for her no matter what.

From the start, it’s clear who will be set up for putting the body in the dumpster. But let’s be honest, Vivien Chien would never cancel a main character this way. So off we go, racing alongside Lana and her friends to figure out what really happened and how fast they can untangle the mess. And yes, there was a twist I absolutely didn’t see. I love when a cozy mystery manages to sneak one past me.

As for what’s next for Lana? Who knows. But if history is any indication, we can count on donuts, giggles, shenanigans, and at least one moment where Lana wonders how she got herself into this again.